Hi all, It's my first time posting here I'm an hobbyist game programmer dreaming of releasing my own game on the shelves. Of course being an independent developer I don't expect my game to be as good as the top selling ones, but I'm confident that its quality would be about average standard. What I'm really concerning now is not tech side, but the business side. If I've my game done, is it as simple as just make a deal with a publisher and get back $ per item sold? Would publishers interested in an average-quality product finished by an individual (or a small group of developers) nowadays?
I think in general publishers are only intersted in games they consider might be hits, or surefire sellers in some other respect (like a starwars game that sells to fans of the movies). They don't want to pour their marketing money after something average. The only exception to this is budget publishers, who's selling strategy is a little different. They try to pick up more average work on the cheap (a few thousand dollars flat license) and then make back their money by selling many units of a low priced jewel case CD or something of that nature.
We've in the middle of securing a deal with a decent publisher, but I wouldn't bet all of your chips on it happening to many developers. We aimed our game at the semi-hardcore gamer and made it onto a high profile website. They were browsing, checked out the demo (liked it, obviously) and thought that it could be something that would sell. So, it's possible... sure, but it's also a matter of chance (right time, right place kind of thing) and what your idea of "average standard" is. Personally, if you wanted to secure a publisher, you'd need to aim a lot higher than average. After all, why would they put all of their resources into a game that's just 'average'?
Well, first, because they won't charge what they charge for a AAA title, second, no, they won't put "all their ressources" in it. There's quite a lot of publishers who have budget labels, and some smaller publishers even just concentrate on the low budget segment of the market. Actually, I was quite surprised how uncomplicated it was to actually "get a title on the shelf". Its a hard war out there not only for us developers, but also for the publishers. Almost ANY game might become a top seller in its niche, and no person knows which game will make it.And since the greed and envy between publishers (who are in it for the money alone) is much larger than between developers ( who are in it for both money and dedication), there is always a good chance that Your title gets shelf space.